Every election matters to the capital. In this city, politics leaves its marks on the very stones. This election, though, will matter in a personal way to many Ottawans.

This is, in part, about how we respond to an attack on our city. And for several reasons, this election will be about what sort of capital we want.

We vote three days before the first anniversary of the murder of Nathan Cirillo and the terrifying attack on Parliament Hill. The question of how to maximize both liberty and security must inform this campaign. This is about the sidewalks we tread, the places we gather, the events that mark our seasons as a community. There is no line between the personal and political in this city.

Some of the government’s response to the Oct. 22 remains abstract to most of us. Bill C-51 gave more power to the police and CSIS, made it a crime to promote terrorism and broadened the rules on warrantless arrest. The NDP opposed the bill; the Liberals supported it but have said they would amend it if they take power.

Some of the response is there to be seen on the ground: in the decision to pay police to guard the sentries at the National War Memorial, for example, and in the government’s transfer of Parliament security to the RCMP. The NDP proposed a different plan for Hill security that would have integrated the various agencies under the ultimate authority of the Speakers.

The Conservatives and the NDP have taken two opposing stances on how best to keep Canadians safe. The Liberals have tried, with mixed success, to chart a middle course.

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So far, all the parties seem to have understood that access to public institutions is part of the soul of this city. But they have different views on what the city and its institutions ought to honour, and how. In Ottawa Centre, NDP candidate Paul Dewar and Liberal candidate Catherine McKenna have both spoken out against the planned memorial to the victims of communism – and citizens have made their views clear in the Citizen’s letters section for months. Candidates across the city will no doubt be hearing a great deal about the memorial, and in a larger sense about how the Conservatives have shaped this city of monuments and museums over the last nine years.

Although nothing is ever certain in a Westminster system, the next government will likely be the one to carry the capital through the celebrations in 2017, when Canada turns 150 years old.

It will also carry the country through uncertain economic times. Every family in Ottawa has some connection to the public service. The party that forms the next government will have to make some hard choices. No cuts are easy, but as this city knows, some cuts are wiser than others.

When I arrived in this city as a political-science student in 1995, almost every part of the partisan landscape looked different. The Liberals had triumphed and the Tories were all but destroyed. The NDP were a footnote with nine seats. Ottawa didn’t quite know what to do with Preston Manning’s feisty Reform party, whose response to the entitlements of the Senate would soon be to parade a mariachi band through the halls of Parliament. The Bloc Québécois was the Official Opposition, for heaven’s sake. And nobody knew then whether that would be a historical blip or the new normal.

Everybody was worried about NAFTA and Quebec separation. Undergrads at Café Wim were talking about the end of history. In some ways, society has progressed since then. In others, not so much. The 1993 election still holds the record for the highest number of female candidates: 476. For contrast, in 2011 there were 452; 2015 is not on track to improve on that.

Twenty years is not such a long time, but it’s long enough for every power structure, every bit of received wisdom and every cabal in Ottawa to turn topsy turvy.

Twenty years ago, this city was at the centre of a national conflict between the political establishment and regional challengers. Not much remains of that conflict today, but it has left behind a deep mistrust of the Ottawa establishment that remains, ironically, in the heart of the party that now is the Ottawa establishment. Everything changes in Ottawa, but the memories are long, and the consequences last.

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